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TAYLOR PLAYS 100TH SHOW OF SPEAK NOW WORLD TOUR

6-time GRAMMY winner Taylor Swift kicked off the final leg of her blockbuster SPEAK NOW WORLD TOUR in Australia over the weekend, electrifying capacity crowds and impressing critics -- on Friday at Perth’s Burswood Dome, and at the 100th show of the tour on Sunday at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre.
The Sunday Times (Perth) dubbed Taylor’s show “dazzling,” writing that she “had 16,000 people in the palm of her hand.” Adelaide Now said Taylor “delighted the crowd” and “was at her best….genuinely loving being on stage…..letting her vocal cords wow the crowd.” Taylor played 98 shows in stadiums and arenas in 17 countries around the globe in 2011, and the tour concludes this month with 12 shows in Australia and New Zealand.
“Ours,” the 5th single released from Taylor’s now 5x-Platinum Speak Now album (Big Machine Records), continues to grow at radio, ascending into the Top 5 of both the Billboard and Country Aircheck / Mediabase charts this week. The album’s prior four singles all reached #1. The video for “Ours” is spending its 7th week at #1 on the CMT chart, and also reached #1 on the GAC chart, as well as Australia’s CMC chart. The “Ours” single has been certified Gold, with current sales topping 850,000.
Taylor voices the character of Audrey in Dr. Seuss’s The LORAX, which this weekend earned $70.7 million, scoring the biggest box-office debut of the year. The film also achieved the biggest opening of any Dr. Seuss adaptation, topping 2000’s How The Grinch Stole Christmas.
Taylor is nominated for three 2012 Academy of Country Music Awards: Entertainer of the Year, Female Vocalist of the Year, and Video of the Year. She is also up for Favorite Female Singer and Favorite Song at the 25th Annual Kids’ Choice Awards. She is featured on the April cover of Harper’s Bazaar Australia, and was on the cover of Vogue in February. Taylor is the reigning Billboard Woman of the Year and the AMA Artist of the Year. She is both the Academy of Country Music and the Country Music Association’s current Entertainer of the Year, and now has more than 11.4 million Twitter followers (@taylorswift13) and 29 million Facebook friends.

David Archuleta

With budding maturity, David Archuleta captures two years’ worth of introspection and reflection in The Other Side of Down. His latest pop album is the culmination of dozens of songwriting sessions, long days spent in the studio and nights in the air.
It is a follow-up to David’s 2008 self-titled platinum debut, which saw him work with established songwriters Iike JC Chasez, Jimmy Harry and Eman Kiriakou.

Not only that, it is a reintroduction to the Season 7 American Idol runner-up with the angelic voice whom 30 million television viewers fell in love with, and whose masterful performance of John Lennon’s Imagine captivated audiences world-wide.
Now however, an older, wiser David has emerged, but with faith still on his side and an eternally optimistic wide-eyed outlook. Hence, his latest album’s title. “For me, it’s about moving forward and making progress,” David explains. “I’m heading towards ‘the other side of down’, which is ‘up’.”
Born David James Archuleta on December 28, 1990, in Miami, Florida to Jeff, a jazz musician from Utah and Lupe, a salsa dancer and singer from Honduras, David was exposed to diverse music genres growing up in Utah, from Latin music on his mother’s side to jazz music from his father’s collection. He was particularly fond of and inspired by gospel, pop, R&B and “soulful” music, as well as Broadway musicals.
Barely after Idol, David saw massive success straight out the gate with his first lead single Crush, a catchy pop tune about unrequited teenage love written by Emanuel Kiriakou, David Hodges and Jess Cates, which charted at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and has since sold two million downloads.
His sophomore album, a record entitled Christmas From The Heart, reflects his love for the holiday season and debuted at #2 on Billboard’s Holiday Albums in late 2009.
“For me, Christmas music has always been such a big time in my life,” David recounts.* A year later saw him singing with the prestigious Mormon Tabernacle Choir at their Christmas extravaganza, which earned him rave reviews.
Fast forward to the present, and you see many sides to David Archuleta. There’s the youthful David, affectionately known as Archie, who often lets loose mid-interview giggles on TV and radio.
And there’s the insatiably curious David, who does not have all the answers but is resolved to keep searching for them. This is best encapsulated in the single Something ‘Bout Love off the current album, a S*A*M and Sluggo collaboration, about the perils and joys of being in love.
Then you have David the inspiration and role model, who looks deep inside and up above for guidance and who is deeply passionate about helping others, supporting numerous charities such as Rising Star Outreach, Invisible Children, Children’s Miracle Network and Stand Up To Cancer. In the aftermath of the 2010 Haiti earthquake, he delved into his Latino roots by lending his voice to the recording of Somos El Mundo, a Spanish version of We Are The World.
Feeling a greater sense of purpose is nothing new to this singer, who overcame vocal cord paralysis that afflicted him at age 13 while competing on CBS’s Star Search. The trying experience was chronicled in David’s 2010 New York Times best-selling autobiography Chords of Strength: A Memoir of Soul, Song, And The Power of Perseverance and resonates in the overall message of The Other Side of Down.
“Instead of acting like everything in life is so hard and confusing, look at it this way: the only way you can go from here is up,” he says. “It’s our decisions and how we handle things, even when they get rough. If we keep holding on, looking at things positively and working hard, we can improve our lives, help ourselves, and even help the greater good.”
To that end, David has toured extensively across the United States, the United Kingdom and Asia to perform for fans. His current eclectic musical inspirations run the pop-rock gamut, from acoustic guitar-driven singer-songwriters like Jason Mraz to the electronic sounds of female innovators like Imogen Heap and A Fine Frenzy. “It’s amazing how one song can change someone’s life,” says David. “It’s been done for me so many times and I want to give to my fans the same thing those artists have given me.”
*US Magazine – http://www.usmagazine.com/moviestvmusic/news/david-archuleta-shares-his-melodies-of-christmas-20092312